News Brief

Hagel: 'Not One Shred of Evidence that I'm Anti-Israel'

Chuck Hagel, bracing for a bruising Senate confirmation as the next US defense secretary, pledged Monday "total support" for Israel after lawmakers criticized his views on the Middle East.

There is "not one shred of evidence that I'm anti-Israeli, not one vote (of mine) that matters that hurt Israel," the former Republican senator told The Lincoln Journal Star, a newspaper in his home state of Nebraska.